The present invention relates to devices used to dispense retail promotions, such as product or price coupons, in individual sheets at a point-of-purchase, and more particularly to an improved coupon dispenser device wherein a spring-loaded pusher member formed having a P-shaped head is mounted for linear travel within the chamber of a rigid housing assembly having a rounded dispensing mouth and a plurality of tapered ribs extending longitudinally through the chamber to guide distribution and delivery of a stack of coupons to the dispensing mouth when urged upon by the pusher member.
In the field of retail marketing and store promotions, the use of coupon dispensers is widespread particularly at the point of consumer selection and purchase of the product. Often mounted on retail shelves in proximity to the associated product, these coupon dispensers have traditionally been mechanical or electro-mechanical in their operation and have been designed in a variety of configurations to deliver a supply of stored coupons one at a time to an interested consumer. The coupons are generally stored in a folded stack within box-like housings and spring pressure is often applied to the stack to maintain a certain directional distribution, typically toward an open end in the housing through which the coupons may be individually retrieved. Ideally, the stack of coupons should move smoothly through the housing of the dispenser with the outermost coupon in the stack being exposed through the open end so that one and only one coupon is delivered at a time.
Many prior art coupon dispenser devices have been devised and constructed in an effort to provide a complete and continuous flow of the coupons stored therein and their repetitive delivery one-at-a-time to the consumer. Structure variations in the housing of these prior art devices have been implemented in an attempt to facilitate the storage and flow of the coupon stack under a spring load. Other adaptations, such as the use of specially interfolded coupon sheets, with and without adhesive backings, have also been used with some success to achieve a more consistent distribution and sequential delivery of the coupons. While a wide variety of pre-existing dispenser devices with spring-loaded coupon stacks have been generally satisfactory in their use, they have not proven to be completely reliable in effecting repeatable discharge of a single coupon without clumping many together. Although battery powered coupon dispensing devices having electro-mechanical advancers have been proven capable of delivering individual coupons in sequence, they are generally more expensive and burdensome to mount and can be prone to failure due to their power requirements and mechanical movements.